Underneath The Stars
by Saereth
Summary: Hermione is haunted by memories she had tried to loose, and a promise not yet for filled. Short story and flashbacks.


_**My first attempt at a fanfiction, inspired by 'underneath the stars' by The Cure feat. Milla Jovovich. Italic represents flashbacks.**_

Hermione woke to the howling winds of the night. Sheets of rain crashing against the window as the sounds of a low roll of thunder steadily filled the room.  
She'd been dreaming again. No, not dreaming. Remembering.  
She hastily crawled out of bed and fumbled for the oil lamp on the bedside table. As she lit it, shadows crowded the room and danced from their corners.  
She closed her eyes firmly.

Sitting alone in the empty Griffindor tower, her home since the end of the war, she tried to clear her mind.  
she had taken on further study at Hogwarts, mostly because she didn't know what else to do. The world had been shattered after the war. Her world had been shattered.  
So many friends dead and gone... Ron and Harry, two brothers she would never forget...  
A small gasp escaped her lips as the knowledge of their death reaffirmed itself deep in her chest. and something else.

She tried to slow her thoughts, but the walls in her mind had started to crumble... Memories leaking out like poison to fill her body... A whisper of laughter, a gentle touch..

_"We could drift away..."_

Hermione opened her eyes with a start and looked around. Was she hearing things?  
A movement caught her eye near the window and she jumped up, grabbing the lamp and swinging it wildly towards the source of her panic.  
The room was still and quiet save for the constant pounding of rain. She grabbed her robe off of the floor and hurriedly shoved her arms into the sleeves, wrapping it around her.  
A shiver ran up her spin and she swung the lamp around again. Shadows danced and swayed around her, running from her sight and lurching forward again.  
Lightening cracked suddenly, ripping through the room with searing light. Startled, She screeched and flung the lamp. It crashed loudly against the wall, shattering into shards and tiny slivers,  
The rain of glass caught the lightening and reflected it a thousand times over as it fell, blinding her in a dazzling shower of silver light.  
Before the tinkering sounds of its landing had stopped, and the room flooded with shadows, melting the light away, Hermione fled.

She flew down the spiral staircase from her room. The shadows chasing behind. Bringing with them memories she had tried so hard to close off...

_A clear night. Stars filling the sky like precious silver spread over a black sheet._  
_And underneath them two figures danced. _  
_The woman's eyes lit up as they rested on his face. A small smile graced his features and he gazed back at her._  
_His black coat billowed as he spun her in a graceful twirl, and soft laughter escaped her lips._

Hermione stumbled at the base of the stairs, throwing herself against the wall as she tried to regain her balance. The impact caused her to cry out in a painful sob.  
She lay still, at the bottom of the stairs, leaning against the cold wall as she tried to lower her heartbeat. No, she thought. and a small whisper of "please don't.." escaped her lips as  
the memories continued to flood her senses. She lifted herself painfully and ran to the portrait hole, climbing through desperately and grazing her knees against the cement until they bled.  
But the barrage of memories would not stop.

_She draped her arms lazily over his shoulders as he continued to hold her._  
_"are you afraid?" she asked, looking up suddenly._  
_"How could I let fear spoil a moment as endless as this?" he replied half mockingly._  
_She smiled at him, knowing full well he was avoiding a straight answer._

_Hermione brushed his dark locks out of his face and behind his ear. Letting her hand rest there._  
_"Severus I.." -_  
_"Don't". He cut in front of her. His face solemn and foreboding._  
_She simply sighed and leaned in to his arms, resting gently on his shoulder. She knew he would talk no more. Secretive and temperamental as he was._

Pain shot through her chest like a piercing hot knife, and half blinded by the tears now falling down her face, she fled through the great hall and slammed into  
the great front doors, they buckled under her full force and slowly gave way. Pushing hard against the torrential rain and howling winds, she struggled through the doors and down into the courtyard.  
Still trying to outrun the memories and voices that the darkness had bought.  
The rain was ice cold and stung as it hit her. Within minutes she was frozen to the core as she meandered her way across the court yard and down towards the lake, currently concealed  
in the dark and drowned out by the storm.  
The only source of heat was the burning tears now streaming unbridled down her face, and the hot searing in her heart.  
As she ran she clawed at her chest. Her fingernails dug in and gouged bloody marks as they struggled to tear skin and rip flesh, she felt her fingernails splintering and ripping of as she went, but she did not stop.

She hurled herself forward with greater urgency towards the sounds of crashing waves from the lake. Clawing and tearing all the way as blood spilled out over her fingers and ran freely down her arms and stomach.  
Finally, with little energy and even less coherent, she stumbled forward and fell heavily into the hard earth. Arms stretched out above her head, she could feel the splashes of water that meant she had reached the shore of the lake. Winds still roaring and ripping through her skull, she rolled onto her side and screamed. Echoes of a cry pent up for an age.  
She howled her mournful song into the unforgiving night.  
Still clawing as the painful wounds in her chest dug deeper, blood now pouring freely as she sensed her nails scraping raw bone.  
With one last cry she lay still, a soft sigh escaping her lips in the slight form of a name.

_"Severus"..._

_On a night long ago, in a world on the brink of war, Hermione and Severus strolled together silently under the stars beside a lake._  
_With everything that had gone, and all still to come, Severus kissed her softly and smiled._  
_"If i should be lost to you" he started, staring into her eyes._  
_"If you should be lost to me I would tear my own heart out, and toss it into the lake!" she replied half jokingly to the man she loved. _  
_"but that will never happen" she continued. "because in my mind there will always be this night"._  
_"and in mine you shall be forever in my arms" he whispered. A single tear forming in his dark piercing eyes._

When the sun emerged that morning, the air clean and crisp and the world quiet from the storm of the previous night, the light crept in.  
And as it touched the highest towers of Hogwarts, and the shore of the crystal blue lake, it lit upon a figure.  
Pale, bruised and unmoving. deep red bloomed across the chest and down the arms, flung out towards the lake.  
And clutched weakly in its hand, something deep crimson and broken.  
And the wave broke upon the tips of its fingers, slowly draining away in a streak of blood and drifting away.


End file.
